The Kittredge turnaround: Was it fans' tough love? Or Craig Counsell's pat on the back?

When Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson went haywire on the Hail Mary play against the Commanders last year, coach Matt Eberflus' discipline of Stevenson — and how it would affect the locker room — was a little complicated, and confusing: Would being too tough on Stevenson cause a problem with teammates? Or being too easy? It was hard to tell.

As it turned out, Eberflus — after a week of mismanaging the situation publicly — was somewhere inbetween. Stevenson would not start and apparently would rotate with Terrell Smith against the Cardinals the following week. As it turned out, because Smith was injured after only nine plays, Stevenson played 45 of 57 snaps (78.9%) in a 29-9 loss to the Cardinals at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.

Not exactly tough love. It was almost as if Eberflus was trying to keep two factions happy — the teammates closest to Stevenson who did not want him severely punished, if punished at all; and those teammates further away from Stevenson (like on offense) who might have wanted Eberflus to teach the young (and talented) player a lesson.

That call on team discipline often has been a tricky one for coaches — sometimes tough love does the trick. Other times a pat on the back is in order. And as coaches like to say, every situation is different. (though suspending Stevenson for the Cardinals game likely would have been the better move — and gotten the message across to Stevenson better than it did.)

It's a constant management conflict — whether it's a matter of discipline like in the Stevenson incident or the more common task of coaxing maximum performance — that seemed to come into play Wednesday at Wrigley Field. The previous night, Cubs relief pitcher Andrew Kittredge relieved Shota Imanaga in the seventh inning of a 1-1 game against the Reds and allowed four runs in 1/3 of an inning.

Kittredge was booed loudly by fans at Wrigley as he left the field, and didn't even try to pretend he didn't hear it. On the contrary, "I feel like I deserved to be booed," he told reporters. "It was an embarrassing performance. I know that comes with the territory."

Manager Craig Counsell took the pat-on-the-back tack with Kittredge, not only defending Kittredge in his post-game interview ("The stuff was really good."), but going right back to Kittredge on Wednesday in the seventh inning with the Cubs leading the Reds 2-0 — an obvious show-of-confidence by throwing him right back in the fire.

Kittredge responded magnificently, with a rare "immaculate inning" (three strikeouts on nine pitches) before giving way to Brad Keller in the eighth inning.

It made Counsell look like a genius. But I don't think you can discount the role that Cubs fans' tough love the previous night also played in Kittredge's performance. Some people think it's bad form for fans to boo players, that it's counter-productive. But in this case it worked to perfection — Cub fans playing the bad cop; Craig Counsell playing the good cop. Counsell had the bigger role in Kittredge's turnaround, but, as John Fox liked to say, "It's a little of both."

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